Ready Room Interview: Ernie Maglischo

Ernie Maglischo won 13 Division II NCAA titles as a coach in California and was the author of "Swimming Fast," "Swimming Faster" and "Swimming Fastest," a series of books that have updated readers on the technology and science of swimming for decades.
Maglischo talks about the inspiration Doc Counsilman's book "The Science of Swimming" had on his own books and how he wanted to explain the "why" of swimming over the "what" of swimming.
Lift and drag in reference to propulsion were two principles Maglischo has tried to relay as a coach and author. He said he has understood that lift is involved in propulsion, but drag plays a bigger role, and that swimmers should use their limbs as paddles to get them through the water. <> Maglischo continues to talk about resistance drag and the three pieces of it: form drag, frictional drag and wave drag. Then there's propulsion drag, which moves swimmers forward when they apply resistance against the water. Maglischo breaks down the essential components that swimmers use these days to move forward.
Much of the lingo in the interview veers into technical terminology, but just as he does in his books, Maglischo is able to explain it further to help viewers understand it in plain terms.
In regards to training elements, Maglischo talks about the techniques he used in the 1970s and the advent of anaerobic threshold and lactate testing in the 1980s.
"I think we went too far with that concept," he said. "In the 1970s we were training so specifically, that we weren't develping any particular phase of the energy metabolic system to maximum. With the anaerobic threshold we were developing the aerobic system much, much better. We're still there now."
Maglischo said the future of training should include more frequent fast anaerobic swimming to get the fast-twitch fibers trained for endurance.
Maglischo also delves into lactate testing, and how it should be an aerobic and anaerobic test for a swimmer, not as a gauge of how fast the swimmer will go.
The interview concludes with talk about the new swimsuit technology and how the center of buoyancy is being shifted more towards the center of mass and helping the swimmer float better. "The compression of the body and the fabric in the suit could be some of the factors that are helping swimmers go faster", he concluded.